Can We Stop All The Weather Hysteria Please?

Somewhere around Friday afternoon, I started to go into the mild panic about the unknown as the Weekend weather was approaching. Like most folks, my wife and I scrambled into a crowded-with-people/empty-of-food grocery store to get our supplies to hunker down for what everyone kept touting as the next Ice Storm '98.

Everywhere you turned on social media and the news, everyone was  rattling on about the severity of the weather headed towards us, and it was time to batten down the hatches, etc... for a storm that didn't really come. Sure, at my house, we got a small amount of sleet in the afternoon, but there was no three-quarter inch thick layer of ice.

Don't get wrong, this isn't about bashing meteorologists. They report it as they see it. But not one report I saw mentioned that maybe we wouldn't get any ice. Yet, my weather app on my phone kept looking like it was going to miss us. All while the news and social media were still predicting Ice-A-Geddon.

Is it possible that in this day and age of getting clicks, and trying to get the big scoop, we're just exaggerating to look cool? Again, I don't mean just the weatherpersons. Granted, they could tone down the drama a bit, and look at the big picture. Not just the one that looks the worst.

It especially goes for us armchair meteorologists as well. We have a tendency to get online, and tell everyone the world is about to end. Maybe it's time we all just took a deep breath, gathered a little common sense, and look out the window. Or maybe listen to Grampa's bum leg a little more often? It's never been wrong about the rain....